Talking Politics With Mom

Original Airdate: Jul 4, 2026 As America celebrates the Fourth of July and begins commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the founding of our nation, it's worth remembering that this wasn't simply the birth certificate of a new nation. It was one of the most audacious political documents ever written. In a world where kings claimed to rule by God's au...

Original Airdate: May 28, 2026 Donald Trump successfully conducted a hostile takeover of the Republican Party in the lead-up to the 2016 election - and the Republican Party and MAGA have been synonymous ever since. But really, Trump was always the final form of the Republican Party - a party with unpopular ideas that serves the rich elite, and uses culture war issues, dog whistles and demagoguery...

Original Airdate: May 21, 2026 This week on Talking Politics with Mom, we sat down with Tennessee congressional candidate, Victoria Broderick, who is running as an unapologetic progressive in a state Republicans love to write off as “deep red,” but as she explains in this episode: Tennessee isn’t a red state - it's an abandoned state - it’s a voter-suppressed state. We talked about Republican...

Original Airdate: Apr 7, 2026 In this episode, we break down the reality behind the current U.S. conflict with Iran and ask the question few are really answering: why are we at war in the first place? Through a powerful conversation with a Marine veteran, we explore the growing tensions, the political narratives surrounding the Iran war, and how history, from Vietnam to Iraq, can help us understan...

Original Airdate: Mar 26, 2026 Don't worry! Mom is ok. But our health-care system isn't... After a sudden medical emergency, my mom took her spouse who was in severe pain, to the emergency room and they were left waiting in a crowded ER for hours - despite being in one of the wealthiest areas in the country. What's happening in the ER is the canary in the coal mine when it comes to our...

Original Airdate: Feb 12, 2026 Six months ago, my mom and I posted a video called The Dark Secrets of 1950s America - and it struck a nerve. We heard from so many of you about your mothers and grandmothers… but we also got serious pushback. A lot of it centered around one big claim that’s been gaining traction online: Feminism made women miserable. In this episode, we dig into that argument head-o...

Original Airdate: Jan 11, 2026 The murder of Renee Good by ICE was a warning. In broad daylight, in her own neighborhood, a young mother and volunteer legal observer was shot and killed by an ICE agent while documenting federal actions. Within minutes, government officials rolled out a prewritten narrative falsely branding her a violent threat and calling the killing “self-defense,” despite video...

Original Air Date: Dec 16, 2025 The fact that Trump made huge gain in the share of the Latino vote has confounded many pundits politicians, especially considering the fact that he ran such a racist and xenophobic campaign specifically targeting Latinos. But it turns out that the Latino population is incredibly diverse, and ironically, it may have been that very demonization strategy that helped hi...

Millions of people took to the streets to oppose Trump and his fascism during the No Kings protests, and then they came out and voted for Democrats in massive numbers during the last election - in large part because they supported the fact that the Democrats were standing up to the Trump regime during the government shutdown and demanding that the ACA subsidies be extended... and then before we kn...

American farmers voted for Trump by huge margins... even though he campaigned on a tariff policy that was certain to start a trade war and hurt their exports of stuff like soy beans to China. He also promised to deport "illegal immigrants" (undocumented workers) who make up a large percentage of the farm sector's labor force. But they voted for him anyway - why? There is a narrative out there that...

Columbus Day, once an innocuous holiday (for some), has in recent years become a flash point for our never-ending culture war. Many (rightly) point out that Christopher Columbus was an evil man - and unleashed a genocide on Native Americans unparalleled in human history. While others (wrongly) want to celebrate this man as an American hero, who sailed the ocean blue in 1492, etc... and deny the at...

Pete Hegseth renamed the Department of Defense the Department of War, and has said that the Military's sole mission is "war fighting." Meanwhile, Donald Trump has mused about "the war within" and sent federal troops into even more cities across America, including Portland and Chicago, and threatened to arrest elected officials if they don't cooperate. ICE continues to t...

A little over 2 weeks ago, Charlie Kirk was murdered while speaking in front of thousands of people - and a video of the horrific act spread across the internet. The event has shaken the nation - and created an atmosphere of tension and fear. But instead of trying to ease that tension and fear, and try to unify the country - Trump, his administration and the Right Wing media have instead ratcheted...

Donald Trump has deployed federal agents and the national guard into Washington D.C. to take over the local law enforcement to supposedly combat crime in the city, despite the fact that crime rates are at historic lows. He already did something similar in Los Angeles. These actions, in combination with the massive increase to the ICE budget and activity have us a little bit worried... So we reache...

Trump Regret is real... whether it's because they had a family member deported, their business is suffering because of tariffs, they are on the brink of losing their healthcare, or they are mad that the Epstein Files haven't been released - former Donald Trump supporters are regretting their vote. And some are even going online and confessing their transgression, and trying to make amends...

There IS a threat to women and girls sports in America, but it's not coming from trans people. It turns out that the real threat is the anti-trans movement itself. That, and of course, money. Participation in youth sports in particular is increasingly becoming a privilege afforded only to the wealthy. And the nexus between money and bigotry is harming women and girl's sports far more than...

My mom loved sports growing up, in fact we was very good at them. But there were very few opportunities for elite women's athletes when she grew up. She spent a good portion of her life trying to help create a world that would create more opportunities for women in sports. So when the trans athletes in women's sports debate popped up - she came to that issue with a lot of strong emotions s...

In the very first episode of this show - we examined the source of my mom's conservative ideology - which largely came from red-scare propaganda about how secret communists were plotting to destroy America... But it was clear in that discussion that my mom had also internalized many of the lies sold to her about race. Since that first episode - my mom has reflected on those beliefs, and she has as...

Polls show that most people believe that DEI programs benefit Black people the most. But the truth is that DEI programs are designed to provide opportunities for a wide array of under-served communities. And it turns out that those under-served communities actually include a whole lot of White people - including our new Vice President: JD Vance. Check out our Patreon

The concept of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) has become an all-purpose scapegoat for Republicans in recent years - responsible for everything from the LA fires to the recent plane crash in Washington DC. In this episode, Mom and I discuss the origins of how this concept became the default reactionary bugaboo, and how it is designed to distract from Trump's effort to dismantle the administ...

In 2008, 62% of young men under 30 voted for Obama. In 2024, over 50% of them voted for Trump. What the hell is going on? Part of the answer might be the influence of something called "The Manosphere" a media ecosystem that includes and caters to incels, pick-up artists, men's rights activists, and others who believe that feminism is the primary cause of all of our problems. But if y...

Donald Trump ran his 2024 Presidential Campaign, essentially, on a single issue: Immigration. He said that "illegal immigrants" were bringing crime, taking your jobs, and poisoning the blood of the nation. And the Democrats did not have an effective counter-narrative. Now, with the right-wing civil war about immigration taking place between the tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Vivek...

A half century ago during Christmas time a young marine in Vietnam wrote to my mom. This complete stranger asked for her help in making Christmas a little brighter and less lonely for his company of marines. What happened next will make you believe in the goodness of the human heart. The acts of kindness that followed from that simple letter have rippled out across five decades like a beacon of li...

So... the bad thing happened... Donald Trump won and Kamala Harris lost the Presidential election. How did this happen? WHY did this happen? Will and Mom examine those questions and look to history for some possible explanations; most notably the failed Presidential Campaign of Hubert Humphrey. And then they explore how we process the fact that millions of our fellow Americans voted for an obvious...

My formerly conservative boomer mom explains why Donald Trump MUST lose this election - and Kamala Harris MUST win. Trump is using the same fear tactics that were used by people like Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s - warning about "the enemy from within" in order to divide Americans and gain power. But who is the REAL "enemy from within"? Mom implores conservatives to put their country before party -...